Gas producing and consuming apparatus.



No. 816,973. PATENTBD APR. 3, 1906.

' C. ELLIS.

GAS PRODUCING AND C'ONSUMING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3, 1905 3 SHBETSSHEET 1. M)

0. ELLIS. GA$ PRODUCING AND GONSUMING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3, 1905.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2 PATENTED APR. 3, 1906.

No. 816,973. PATENTED'APR. 8, 1906.

'0. ELLIS. GAS PRODUCING AND GONSUMING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3, 1905.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

WITNESSES: A INVENTOR zinc have never heretofore,

I posed into hydro cording to the we OARLETON ELLIS, OI? NEW YORK,

OI NEl/V YORK, N.

' UTILITIES COMPANY, NEW- YORK.

. lfti tllfltfll lili orbn.

N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO COMBUSTION Y., A CORPORATION OF GAS PRODUCING ND OUINSUWHNG APPARATUS Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 3, 1906.

Application filed February 3, 1905. Serial No. 243,928,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thattI, OAnLn'ron ELLIS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented oertain new and useful Improvements in Gas Producing and Consuming Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a gas-fired metallurgieal furnace in which the gas-producer is functionally remote from the gas-consuming furnace, and may therefore be an entirely independent structure, although independence of structure is not absolutely necessary to the practice of my invention provided the or-,

ganization of apparatus be such as to preserve the essential functional characteristics.

My invention relates to muffle-furnaces, and particularly to furnaces used in the metallurgy of zinc.

The furnaces used in the distillation of so far as I am aware, been heated by producengas, which is of an anh drous or substantially anhydrous nature. as-producers used for the purpose have heretofore been operated by steam--- that is to say, the air required to blow the producer is developed by induction of a steam-jet, and a mixture of steain and air is produced, which passes through the bed of incandescent fuel in the producer and gives rise to gas carrying considerable hydrogen.

It is rarely possible to conduct-the operation of the"gas-producer on such a temperature plane that the steam'is completely dGGOlTlr en and carbon monoxid acl-known water-gas reaction, temperature-level clinkerand consequent stopiage because at such a ing'of the producer of operation are: almost inevitable.

draft-current entering the producer to reduce the temperature below the clinkering-point,

' which results in only a partial decomposition of thesteam and a consequent adulteration of the gaseous combustible. by water-va or..

and from three percent. to ten waterwapor. may be present in t regenerator of present invention is shown m uffi-- lcient steam is therefore introduced into the The gas does notburn absorbed and carried away as latent heat of vaporization, hydrogen is a much poorer combustible, volume for volume, than carbon monoxid. The presence of steam in the combustible gas seems to have an influence on. the retorts used in the distillationiurnaces. It has a disintegrating action which is not apparent with a dry or anhydrous gas. Consequently the life of the retorts is not long when much steam is used in the gas producer. Especially is this the case where cheap anthracite coal, which clinkers easily,

is employed. Undersuch conditions to avold 1 clinkeringa great excess of steam is needed,

e combustible gas. r

, My invention consists inapparatus so arranged and coordinated that practically dry combustible gas is generated in the gas-producing appliance and is delivered to the gas consuming appliance and burned around the retorts or mufi'les by admixture of air reheated from the waste products of com us tion. The products of combustion from the furnace preferably pass through a regenerator of the continuous type, although reversing-regenerators of the well-known Siemens type may be used. A portion of the proder cent. of

note of combustion is diverted either before or after its passage through the regenerator and is returned to the as-producer for the generation of combustib le gas.

A distillationafurnace having a continuous a sort particularly applicable to use in the' United States Patent No. 712,502. In furnaees of this character various influences combine to render it feasible to burn the fuelgas with no very large excess of oxygen, owing to the long distance through which the flame travels'in contact with highly-heated heat-retaining walls. waste products of combustion may easily be obtained carrying from ten tofifteen per cent. of carbon dioxid, an amount quite. suff cient to secure anendothermic reaction in the gas- As a consequence,

producer equal to that produced by steam,

and, furthermore, under a regulation and control far more exact and reliable than that tion and the zinc-furnace 2 in vertical sect1on. Fig. 2 IS a view showing the furnace in longitudinal section along the'lme 2'2 of .Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a view showing the furnace in longitudinal section along the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

Like reference characters designate like. elements in all views.

.In the illustrations, 1 is a gas-producer.

2 isa distillation or muflle furnace.

3 is a gas-conduit connecting producer and furnace, the gas-entrance being shown in Fig. 2 at the termination of flue 5.

4 is a gate or valve in the conduit.

5 is the gas-fluein the furnace connecting with the conduit 3.

6 is the combustion-chamber of the furnace; 7 7, passages for products of combustion leaving the chamber. I

8 is a flue conducting waste gases from the regenerators 20 to a chimney-stack. 9 is a fan in a conduit 10, tapping this flue and abstracting a portion of the waste gases for delivery to twyer 11 in the producer.

12 is an air-inlet on the suction side of the fan; 13, a valve in conduit 10, controlling the flow of the admixed air and combustiongases; 14, avalve on the air-inlet; 15, asteaminlet "on the producer; 16, another valve in conduit 10, .regulating the amount of the products of combustion induced by the fari.

17 is a flue distributing products of combustion to the regenerators. i 18 and 18 are zinc-distilling muflles in the furnace. 19 is a condenser shown attached to one of said muflies.

20 is used to mark the regenerators.

21 is a hotair passage delivering to the combustion-chamber through ports 22.

22 is a gas-flue.

'23 is a downtake for products of combustion delivering to the regenerators through 17.

24 is a flue connecting the two sections of regenerator 20.

25 is a gas-exit flue taking waste gas from the regenerators and delivering to flue 8.

26 is an air-duct delivering air through passages 27 to regenerator 20, and 28 is a cham-' berabove the regenerator.

My method" of operation is as follows: A deep bed of coal fire is brought to a state of incandescence in the as-producer 1 by means of the natural draft through the furnace 3 or, preferably, by the air of a blast produced by the fan 9. The combustible gas evolved in the producer passes through the conduit 3 into the channel 22 of the furnace 2 through an uptake and distributingports to the chamber 6, where it mingles with air which is'passed through the vertical chan nels of regenerator 20 and through the passages 21 and 22 to chamber 6. The gas burns around the retorts 18, heating them to a high temperature and causing distillation of zinc or other metal into the condensers, one

[into the stack-tunnel 8.

in the art to which this i from a particular furn of which appears at 19. Products of combustion pass downward through passages centrally located in the furnace 2, then through the horizontal regenerative flues and Such portion of these stackgases as is found necessaryfor operating the producer is drawn back through the conduit 10 by the fan 9. To regulate the temperature of the producer, adjustment is made of valves 14 and16 to proportion the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxid admitted to the producer. The gate13 may be adjusted to regulate the volume of the mixture determined upon. Furtherregulation may be secured by varying the speed of the fan.

The passage for fresh air and for products of combustion are not fully illustrated in de-' tail, being familiarin the art. may be had to the aforesaid patent, N o. 712,502,for a more complete illustration. I do not, of course, confine myself toconstructional details, but may embody in various constructional forms the idea herein illustrated.

In a copending application, Serial No.

236,452, I have disclosed'apparatus adapted for heating retorts, especially those used in the distillation of coal. The ideas set forth therein are correlated with those herein described, except in so far as the present invention relates to the construction of apparatus especially designed and operated for the distillation of volatilizable metal.

It is obvious-that it is not necessary to derive the products of combustion for a gasproducer or battery of gas producers supplying a certain furnace from that identical furnace, especially in installations where a number of producers supply several furnaces, in which case it is desirable to make such connections as are best adapted to the economical carrying out of the ideas herein disclosed,

and the arrangement of apparatus for-the equipment of plants ofrthis character will be evident from this description to those skilled invention appertains. Furthermore, carbon dioxid may be derived from any convenient source in case gases ace are not of such a character as to maintain the proper conditions of temperature in the producer supplying aforesaid furnace.

My apparatus is highly eflicient in the field zinc metallurgy. By its use an increased output of metallic zinc or spelter is obtained. Owing to the peculiar dry or anhydrous condition of the gas, there is a decided saving through decrease in the breakage of retorts. There is, furthermore, a marked economy in fuel and the life of the furnace is greater, because the gas is less corrosive in its action on the Walls of the furnace and on'the flues or checker-work of such heat-regenerative passages as may be employed.

One peculiar advantage arising from the Reference till use.of a fan blower in connection with the delivering the same, admixed with air, into furnace and apparatus aforesaid is that of the precise regulation and control of temperature and rate of combustion in the gas-producer which is attained. There is an opportunity for running the producer at a high tensionthat is to say, forcing through it a draft-current under a greater pressure than that oidi narily em loyed in the operation by steam. A rate of combustion of from six to ten pounds of coal per square foot of hearth area of the producer is all that appears to be feasible by the methods now employed. With the apparatus to double this rate of combustion and at the same time to obtaingas of a superior quality without the simultaneous formation of an objectionable amount, of clinker and soot. In inducing air into a producer by means of a steam-jet or jet of other description it has been found that the amount of air induced is a function of the amount of steam passing throu h the jet in a given interval of time. In other words, the exothermic agent is a function of or is dependent on the amount of the endothermic agent supplied. As a result it has been found that when steam operated producers are run under high tensionclinkering of the producer results and much soot is produced. By means of the fanblower it is evident that I can regulate the amount of air and amount of carbon dioxid to suit the conditions without having the ex othermic agent dependent upon the endothermic agent, and it is this complete independence of composition which makes it possible for me to regulate and control the operation of the herein-described heating system in a manner never before possible of attainment.

I/Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In apparatus for reducing and distilling; metals, the combination of a gas fired fur nace provided with refractory material, a gaaprodueer supplying gas to the furnace, means for abstracting products of combustion from the furnace and herein described it is possible metal-distilling retorts ofrelative proportions of air and the producer, and means for rcgulating; the products of combustion.

2. In an apparatus for reducing and distilling metals, the combination of a gas-fired furnace provided with lllttill'tliwtllllllg retorts of refractory material, a gaaproduccr supplying gas to the furnace, regenerative devices transferring waste heat of products of combustion to entering gas and air, a conduit pro vided with a fan abstracting a portion of the products of combustion and delivering the same to the gasproducer, means for supplying air to said conduit, and means for regulating the relative proportions of air and of products of combustion delivered by said conduit.

3. In apparatus for reducing and distilling zinc, the combination of a gas-fired furnace provided with zinc-distilling rctorts of refractory material, a gas-producer supplying gas to the furnace, a continuous regenerator having; passages in heat-transferring relation for the products of combustion from the furnace and the air entering the furnace, respectively, a conduit provided with a fan ah stracting; a portion of the products of combustion and delivering the same into the gasproducer, means for supplying air to said conduit, and means for regulating the relative proportion of air and of products of combustion delivered by said conduit.

1. In apparatus for reducing and distillingmetals, the combination of a gas-fired furnaee provided with metal-distilling retorts of refractmfy material, with means for producing and for feeding said furnace with dry pro-' duccr-gas, substantially free of hydrogen and steam.

ttigned at New York and State of New York, this 2d day of February, A. l). 1905.

CAItL ETON ELLIS.

Witnesses:

Aitl'. Samoa, Jae. It. CLARK.

York, in the county of N ew 

